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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Hill 582 part 2

I do not live in California, so I was therefore not in this picture...

My grandfather met the person who made the hill it is today, Don Toles. He is the one who came up with the ideas of planting exotic trees, setting up memorials, etc. In this picture, my grandfather is on the left, Don is on the middle, and some random guy, whose name I will put down when I get his name, is on the right. Mains 1 and 2 can be seen to the left of them:

More to come...


Monday, November 28, 2011

Hill 582

As most of you all know, my big December trip is just around the corner. As I was about to secure the 3 parts, I found a decent part four, Hill 582. I was watching a Cajon Pass DVD I had gotten from a train show that came to Houston last week, and it showed trains from all parts, Devore, Blue Cut, Sullivan's Curve, Stein's Hill, and much more. But one spot that really stood out was this Hill 582. With a park bench, bird feeders, rocks, exotic trees, ranging from eucalyptus to locust, and memorials of past railfans, this seemed like a great spot. I looked up "Hill 582" on Google, and, first site, was a site by the guy that made the hill the way it is today, Don E. Toles. Click on this sentence for the site. It instantly popped out at me. There was also two more slots for parts. I decided we could add one more. So last week when the UP 844 steam train came through Southern California, my grandfather went to Cajon Pass to catch it. He decided to follow the directions on the site I gave him to Hill 582. He made it there. It overlooks four tracks, three owned by BNSF, one by Union Pacific. BNSF mains 1 & 2 are literally right next to the hill. BNSF main 3, which is in the pictures I am about to show you, well, you have to turn around to see it. The UP track is atop a hill from mains 1 and 2. It is called the Palmdale Cut-off.

So, for some reason, this UP stacktrain decided to take BNSF main 3 instead of where it belongs:




A close-up of the details, with the train still going to the right:

There is much, much more to this, but I am tired of typing, maybe more tomorrow.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Videos from Richmond, TX

As most of you know, Yesterday I railfanned Richmond, TX.

Train 1: I'm very sorry at how shaky it is... it is much steadier in the second video...
SD70MAC 8861 and ES44DC ???? lead a coal train. On the rear is two former BN heritage units.

Train 2: This video is much steadier. Leading this train is ES44C4( a newer General Electric locomotive for those who don't know) 6632 and C44-9W 4748. The DPU(rear, remember that) unit is ES44DC 7540. Nice K5HLL(horn) on this train!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Wednesday testing of the account

Wednesday will be the real test, I will railfan Pearland, TX, and, if I happen to catch multiple trains, it will be a good time to test out the video editor to put videos together, and,  my YouTube account.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Through the passes day ONE part TEN

Through the Passes series is well back, my friends!

After a quick pit stop at Carl's JR, we drove about a half mile to see that the grain train that we saw back at Boron approaching us yet again!

We found Arroyo Drive, which we missed last year, and caught it there:


Saturday, November 5, 2011

hey all

Hey, sorry, but I don't have real much to post at the time. I will need some more pictures for that to happen. That is the cause of the inactivity.